Thomson: They said what? Time for our provincial political pop quiz

Alison Redford delivered plenty of memorable lines during her first full year as Alberta premier.

Photograph by: Greg Southam
, Edmonton Journal

Before 2012 recedes forever into the rear-view mirror, it’s time for our annual Alberta political year-in-quotes pop quiz.

I’ll provide the quote and you see if you can name the speaker. The correct answers are below.

One point for each correct answer, 10 points for the bonus question — and as always I gratefully award you an infinite number of points for having taken the time to read my columns in 2012. Thank you.

THE QUOTES:

1. “I think standing up and handing back a cheque doesn’t actually solve the problem.”

2. “I made a mistake on these issues and now I am fixing them.”

3. “In my opinion, if you want to look at MLA equity and what they’re paid, they owe me tens of thousands, if not $100,000, in back pay.”

4. “Alberta taxpayers do not owe me anything. I owe them an apology for poorly articulating my beliefs and those of the Wildrose Party.”

5.“We will take that recommendation seriously (and) accept those recommendations.”

6. “I found the premier’s salary recommendations quite surprising, not at all what I expected, and not something that we will be implementing.”

7. “I believe that as a Caucasian, I have an advantage that for the Punjabi community I am able to speak for the whole community and to lift the community up in our region.”

8. “I have absolutely no concerns about Dr. Leech as a candidate.”

9. “We’ve always said the science isn’t settled and we need to continue to monitor the debate.”

10. “We got all our mistakes done in the first week, they got all their mistakes done in the last week.”

11. “Right now our target is to have a balanced budget in 2013-14.”

12. “We were very confident in our projections … something happened this year that was entirely different from what we’ve seen before.”

13. “It is clear the PCs are changing their election promises in order to keep their spending habits instead of changing their spending habits in order to keep their promises.”

14. “Can you please tell us what you consider to be the most significant accomplishment of this fall session?”

15. “Honourable member, really? Frankly I’ve never heard that sort of question before, but given that it’s been asked by a new member, I will allow it this one time.”

16.“Why are you so awesome?”

BONUS: “If you die the way you were born then you will suffer the rest of eternity in the lake of fire.”

WHO SAID IT:

1. Premier Alison Redford refuses to order her caucus members to hand back money earned on the legislature’s infamous “no-meet” committee that hadn’t convened in four years. She calls opposition promises to pay back the money “a convenient stunt.” — March 12.

2. Redford reverses her position on the committee pay in the opening days of the election campaign and orders her caucus members to pay back “every penny.” — March 29.

3. Wildrose MLA Paul Hinman is initially reluctant to pay back the money he earned on the no-meet committee. — March 17

4. Hinman changes his mind on March 18 and says he’ll pay back the money. After losing his seat in the provincial election, he will change his mind again and refuse to pay back the money, arguing that he didn’t get paid for sitting on the committee.

5. Redford promises to stand by the recommendations from an independent review into pay and perks for MLAs. — March 12

6. Oops. Redford later says she cannot accept all the review’s recommendations, particularly the one that would award her a 50 per cent pay hike. — May 2.

7. Wildrose candidate Ron Leech inadvertently helps undermine his party’s election chances with ill-considered comments to a Calgary TV station that come to light April 17.

9. Smith commits her own “bozo eruption” on the campaign trail by questioning the science of climate change during an online forum on April 16. She repeats her comments a few days later in a debate at the CBC — and gets booed by the audience.

10. In a postelection interview, the co-chair of the Progressive Conservatives’ campaign, Stephen Carter, explains how the PCs won and the Wildrose lost. —April 25

12. Two months later, Redford doesn’t sound nearly as optimistic as the government begins to raise the prospect of an unbalanced budget in 2013. — Dec. 19

13. Wildrose MLA Rob Anderson has been saying all year he doesn’t believe the government will balance the budget. — Oct. 18

14. In what might be the most lame question ever raised in the legislature, government MLA Maureen Kubinec wastes everyone’s time by lobbing a puffball at Human Services Minister Dave Hancock. — Dec. 6.

16. Wildrose MLA Jeff Wilson pokes fun at puffball questions from government backbenchers by tossing one of his own to cabinet ministers. — Dec. 6.

BONUS: Easiest question ever. This, of course, is the most notorious quote in Alberta politics for 2012, an excerpt from a blog post by Wildrose candidate Allan Hunsperger railing against tolerance of gay and lesbians in the public school system — a quote that helped sink his party’s electoral ship.

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